Chocolate Balloon Cups with Peanut Butter Mousse
Can we take a moment to enjoy the beauty of these perfect little cups made from chocolate…
By a show of hands, how many of you remember the chocolate mousse cups I made at Christmas? … ok – you can put your hands down. Now that we have in mind where we are starting from, please erase all memories of the disaster of creating those cups and kindly turn your attention again toward these beautiful cups made of chocolate filled with a light peanut butter mousse cream!
Now please wipe the drool from your face! These look so much harder than they are. Start with mini balloons, melt some chocolate, add some filling & you are dressed to impress!
For Mother’s Day this year I was entertaining my folks AND Rich’s folks so needed something we would all love. All Mom’s love chocolate and peanut butter (ok, maybe not “all” moms – but at least the two of ours both do)! So I knew that I wanted to re-attempt my fail (ok, they were not a fail – just not a raging success like these are) at chocolate cups but this time add some peanut butter flavor.
To sum up these chocolate cups with peanut butter mousse: my dad (my most honest and pickiest critc) said [mumbled] “you can make these whenever you want” through his full mouth, to which my mom responded with just a really extreme head nod since her mouth was full and she’s a lady! So what are you waiting for!?! Get off the computer and start making these (or pin these for the next event on your calendar where you want to impress)
To Make your Chocolate Cups:
- approx 1 cup melting chocolate
- about 1 Tablespoon Crisco or Butter or Oil to help chocolate melt smoothly
- 1 dozen[url href=”http://Biodegradable Water Balloons 100 pack
“] “water bomb” balloons[/url]
- Blow up about a dozen “water bombs” (you know – those [url href=”Biodegradable Water Balloons 100 pack
- Rinse and dry all of your balloons just to make sure there is no ‘balloon powder” on the outside of the balloon or in your chocolate cups then! Make sure your balloons are totally dry!
- Melt about 1/2 a package of melting chips or your favorite chocolate with the oil/butter/crisco to aid melting) – either melt in a double boiler or my preferred method of a microwave safe bowl at 30 second increments at 50% power, mixing every 30 seconds until smooth and melted.
- Carefully dunk your balloons in the chocolate, which will create a half-circle – dip it a bit up the balloon, but you don’t want it TOO tall (or too short).
- Drip or wipe off (on the side of the bowl), the excess chocolate from the bottom and place it on a piece of wax paper (on top of a board).
- Repeat
- Once you have dipped all your cups, place them all in the fridge for at least an hour to set up solid. When they are ready, pop your balloons with a pin and carefully peel the shriveled up balloon out of the chocolate shell.
- Now fill to your hearts desire…
- 3/4 cups peanut butter chips (I used a package of Nestles chocolate/peanut butter chips – but use your favorite flavors)
- 1 1/4 cups heavy cream, divided (1/2 cup and 3/4 cup)
- 2 T creamy peanut butter
- 1/8 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 T granulated sugar
- Microwave the peanut butter chips and 1/2 cup of cream in large, microwave save bowl in 30 second intervals, stirring each time until chips are melted and smooth. Whisk in the peanut butter, cinnamon, and vanilla.
- Place mixture in the fridge to cool to room temperature.
- While it cools, in the bowl of an electric mixture, beat 3/4 cup heavy cream with the sugar until stiff peaks form. Carefully fold the cooled peanut butter mixture into the cream in 3 additions until mousse is uniform. Transfer mousse into a piping bag fitting with a large tip and pipe mousse into chocolate cups
- Garnish as needed: chocolate, fruit, mint, etc
NOTE: This article was featured in 2014 by People Magazine in their Great Ideas section!
Be sure to check out some of the other great ideas from People!
And I leave you with this, Today’s Question of the Day… What is your favorite thing to serve inside of a cup of chocolate?